Botley Over 60s Lunch Club
Diners at the Botley Over-60s Lunch Club celebrated Christmas with a
festive meal 10 days before the big day itself. The Seacourt Hall looked
very jolly with two Christmas
trees, garlands around the
room, and the tables laid up
with red covers, red napkins,
pretty table decorations, and
crackers.
Roast beef, roast potatoes,
Brussel sprouts, carrots, and
Yorkshire pudding were on
the menu, followed by Xmas
Pudding and mince pies, all washed down with a glass of wine or fruit
juice. We always pride ourselves on cooking our food freshly on the
premises but I had to do an emergency run home with one huge piece of
beef as we couldn’t get it all in the (double) ovens at the hall! Thankfully
hubby whisked it back in time for it to be carved for lunch at 12.30. All
the beef was delicious, so many thanks to Andy Brock on Elms Parade
from whom we buy all our meat.
We had some extra visitors as well. Eric Batts, who is the Seacourt Hall
manager as well as a member of the Vale of White Horse District Council
cabinet, brought along the Chairman of the Council, Mike Badcock. They
helped serve some of the meals and poured glasses of wine. The most
prestigious visitor, of course, was Father Christmas who oversaw the
raffle and handed out the prizes. Anyone who didn’t win a raffle prize
was invited to take home one of the lovely table decorations which were
homemade with fresh flowers by a couple of the volunteers.
Two volunteers retired from our team that day and the Christmas meal
marked their last lunch with us. They are too modest to be named and
reluctantly came out of the kitchen to be presented with flowers as thanks
for more than 30-years’ worth of service between them. That’s an awful
lot of potato preparation, pudding making and washing-up! There’s more
to it than that, of course, and the volunteers gratefully sat down to a
Christmas lunch after completing most of the clearing up. That was nearly
60 Christmas lunches done and dusted for another year. Phew!
Viv Smith